


Innocence Lost

by zutterAF



Category: Big Bang (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-06-10 17:20:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6966121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zutterAF/pseuds/zutterAF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>T.O.P stands for The Official Pimp. When he walks into a dirty graphic bar one night, he meets Jiyong, a poor homeless boy. Apart from poor and homeless, he’s also rather pretty. And that sets a goal for Seunghyun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys and welcome to my fic! If this comes out the way I imagine it, it's going to be reaaally long and painful so prepare your tissues. 
> 
> \- Rated Explicit for upcoming chapters. This chapter is absolutely clean.  
> \- The rest of the band members will appear soon!  
> \- Archive warnings apply for future chapters. Really, this chapter is clean af.
> 
> Enjoy and feel free to drop ideas in the comments!

The first thing Seunghyun noticed once he stepped into the tiny filthy bar was a petite boy with fading orange hair sitting alone, leaning over the table and sipping at his drink. The little guy had his back turned at him, so he couldn’t surely tell whether he was underage or not. He started walking towards him, surefooted. 

“Mind if I take a seat?” he asked, his voice deep and steady. The boy looked disoriented and confused, but he gave him a slight nod as an answer. Truth is, he didn’t really look like he had anything better to do, and he looked like he was in need of some company.

“Thank you”, Seunghyun replied, a smirk lurking at the corners of his lips as he pulled an empty chair to sit on. “What’s your name?”

“Jiyong” slurred the boy, raising his glass to his lips and emptying its content down his throat, only to search through the crowd with slow eyes and wave a finger at the waiter. As one hand placed the booze filled glass on the table, two more reached for it. Seunghyun’s obviously won this race, since Jiyong was far too wasted to even order his limb to move towards the glass’ precise position. 

“That’s my drink”.

“Don’t you think you had too much for one night?”

Seunghyun took a long sip of the cheap booze while raising an eyebrow in anticipation of Jiyong’s answer. His moves were slow and deliberate, like his patience was infinite and they had all the time in the world.

“I had like, six or seven”, Jiyong chuckled drunkenly. “You’re having my eighth!” 

“I’m pretty sure I’m having my first”. That smirk again, a bit more visible this time. 

“Fine, but I’m not paying for it”.

“I don’t want you to buy me this drink. I don’t even think you can afford the ones you’ve already chugged down”.

Jiyong, in all his drunkenness, shot a piercing cold stare right into Seunghyun’s eyes, and lowered it instantly, his face turning red.

“It’s okay… Jiyong, right?” 

The redhead nodded, running his fingers through his greasy locks.

“Jiyong. Those drinks are on me tonight”, Seunghyun smiled warmly at the light that sparked in Jiyong’s eyes as soon as he heard these words. 

“And how about this: as a ‘thank you’, you come over at my place tonight to continue your drinking. You don’t have to pay a won and it’s top quality liquor”, Seunghyun suggested, fixing his dark eyes into Jiyong’s lighter and duller from the drinking and the tiredness ones. His gaze was accompanied by a wide charming smirk, and a slight single eyebrow raise. 

Jiyong just could not possibly reject such an appealing invitation. If he was in a more sober state, he’d have to reject; free liquor is always a good motive, and especially when offered by well dressed and neat guys such as the stranger that had walked in half an hour before, that free liquor was bound to be of excellent quality. But the drunker you are the more appealing more, better, and most importantly free liquor is.

He didn’t even realize when or how he answered. Thinking about it again, he probably didn’t even give an answer to the charming stranger, yet that stranger had already placed a 6,000 won bill on the sticky table and topped it with the empty glass, and he was now standing in front of the chair where Jiyong was sitting, offering him a hand to help him stand and walk out of the bar.

Once he stood up he had to put effort into maintaining his balance and what was left of his composure, and yet he failed. The world was spinning so much before his drunken eyes, that he took a dive forwards and landed into the stranger’s chest. The situation was embarrassing even in the state he was in, and with all the energy and self awareness he had left he pulled himself backwards, catching a glimpse of the taller man’s understanding face. 

“Don’t worry, I’m okay”, he slurred. Seunghyun nodded. 

A step towards the bar’s front door and his surroundings were spinning again, this time the floor also sliding away beneath his feet. That would end up in a painful collision with the floor for sure, if it wasn’t for the sudden strong grip on his right shoulder. 

“You don’t really look okay to me”, Seunghyun deep tone reached Jiyong’s ears, and in his drunken state he focused on them and kept repeating them in his head again and again, for no apparent reason. Next thing he felt, the stranger’s grip on his wrist, raising his thin arm and placing it around his neck for support. It was pretty uncomfortable, since the stranger and he had a significant height difference, but judging by the steps they took without him diving towards the floor again, it worked. 

Soon, the bar’s loud and monotonous music started fading away more and more, and a cold breeze hit his face, restarting his brain and putting him momentarily out of his drunken state. He realized he didn’t even know the stranger’s name, yet he felt like his tongue wasn’t flexible enough to spell the question without slurring, and God, he hated slurring.

The silence was pretty awkward. It made Jiyong feel pretty embarrassed, because there he was in his clothes that hadn’t been washed for a while and his old dirty shoes and his unkempt hair, clinging on to a very stylish and sharply dressed man for support. Lately he had been busy by his priorities, and clothes and style obviously weren’t included there. He felt some worry over the possibility of staining or even ripping the man’s expensive suit, and he tried to ignore this thought and follow his lead. 

After a few minutes of walking, they stopped in front of a shiny black luxurious car. Seunghyun opened the door to the backseats and helped Jiyong inside, paying attention to the smaller man’s head, ready to prevent him from hitting it on the car’s roof. 

“Don’t fall asleep”, he chuckled and helped Jiyong with the seatbelt.

“Can’t fall asleep when more drinking has been promised to me” Jiyong managed to slur out, half laughing and half serious. Seunghyun gave him a small smile, closed the door and headed to the driver’s seat.

The car came to life under the palms of his hands as soon as he turned the engine’s key, with the quiet purr he so much loved. Putting gentle pressure on the pedals and turning the wheel gracefully, he drove away from the dark alley where he had earlier parked it and drove towards the highway. Jiyong had leaned into the window and fixed his eyes on the streetlights. In an attempt to sober up a bit, he tried counting them, but his alcohol infused brain was too slow and the lights passed too fast over them, so he gave up after managing to count a bit over ten inaccurately, realizing he missed over twenty of them. His focus was now switched to the engine’s purr. The car’s gentle rocking made him sleepy.

“So, what was a man like you doing in that filthy little bar?”, Seunghyun broke the silence, looking at Jiyong through the front mirror.

Jiyong switched his weight from the window to the seat where the stranger was driving in, resting his chin on it and making eye contact through the front mirror.

“What was a man like _you_ doing in there?”, he answered the question with a question. Seunghyun chuckled.

“Looking for someone like you”. 

Jiyong fell back into his seat waist deep in thought of this statement. The conversation ended like that and they both fell silent, the only sound heard being the engine and the occasional car passing by Seunghyun’s. The highway wasn’t busy that night and the sky was clear, so the ride to Seunghyun’s place was a mild and pleasant one.

Jiyong had a hard time clearing his thoughts and an annoying headache had started forming. His relationship with drinking was a hate-love one, he loved the fuzziness but he hated the aftermath, hangover and all. Yet as much as he hated it, he didn’t avoid getting drunk almost every other night, and he really, really didn’t want to admit that he had a drinking problem. He liked to think that he had some sort of control over it, but deep down he knew that wasn’t exactly the truth. 

Mentally going over his drinking problem for the millionth time that week, he started dozing off to sleep. At first he tried forcing his eyes open, remembering what the man had told him as he was helping him sit down on the backseat, but in the end he didn’t see how falling asleep would be a problem, and judging by the lack of houses on the sides of the streets they still had a pretty long way to go. He closed his eyes and gave himself over to the comforting embrace of sleep.

Seunghyun took his eyes from the road and checked on Jiyong through the front mirror. He found him sleeping and smiled to himself. The boy’s face was finally free of the concern that was nesting between his eyebrows for the hours before he fell asleep, and now he looked peaceful, angelic even. 

Turning his gaze to the street again, he allowed himself to relax and empty his mind for a while. This whole time he was fixed on the boy, anxious to gain his trust and make him feel comfortable, which he apparently at least halfway managed, judging by the fact that he was now fast asleep in his backseat. Sure, his drunkenness really helped with that, but he thought that even in this state, some level of trust and comfort was essential for one to fall asleep in some random stranger’s car.

Minutes later, he reached their destination. With a single press of a button, the garage door opened up and he drove inside. Once he positioned the car inside and turned off the engine, he got out and closed the door as gently as possible, careful not to scare Jiyong awake. He opened the door to the backseats in the same gentle way, and he lightly tapped Jiyong on the shoulder. He got no response from the boy, so he shook him a bit, but that had the same effect as the tapping; no response. Drunken sleep was indeed deep sleep, and seeing he could get no response from Jiyong, he undid his seatbelt and slid his arms under him, one under his knees and one behind his back, lifting him up and outside of the car. It felt as if like the boy weighted nothing, which he should have expected by his scrawny and small body. With a swing of his hips he closed the door, and with Jiyong in his arms he walked out of the garage and upstairs, into his house. 

First floor and passing through the living room, he assumed from the silence that the house was empty. He rolled his eyes at the messy couch and coffee table, but kept walking up another set of stairs, this time to the second floor where the bedrooms were. 

Reaching an unoccupied bedroom, he laid Jiyong on the bed and took off his shoes, placing them next to the bed. Seeing that the boy was still sleeping unbothered, he carefully slid his hands into his old jeans. He pulled out an ID card, and enough coins to buy nothing with, as well as a photo of a girl. By the looks of her she looked pretty young, and Seunghyun assumed that she was either Jiyong’s sister or girlfriend, maybe even his best friend of some sort. The coins were of no significance to him, so he switched his attention to the ID card. Jiyong’s photo on the ID was unexpectedly good, taking into consideration that ID photos were usually on various levels of unattractiveness. He turned the card over to gather some initial information about the boy. After reading the date of birth he realized that calling him ‘boy’ was a bit ironic, as it turned out to be that Jiyong was only a year younger than him. Full name was Kwon Jiyong. Nationality Korean, as expected. 

Not wanting to risk Jiyong waking up and seeing him looking through the content of his pockets, he carefully put everything back to place and then walked towards the wardrobe. He picked a blanket from inside and threw it over Jiyong. He was about to leave the room when he remembered the danger of him throwing up in his sleep, since he obviously was really drunk. He turned back and with a little effort he turned Jiyong on his side, placing a couple of pillows against his back to support this position and prevent him from lying on his back and chocking on his own vomit in the case of him actually ending up throwing up. 

“Drink? You promised” Jiyong slurred in his sleep, slightly opening his eyes.

Seunghyun pulled the blanket over his shoulders. “It’s late now, go back to sleep.”

He walked to the bedroom door and looked back at Jiyong, who had went back to sleep as fast as he had woken up to request his promised drink.

“See you in the morning”, Seunghyun whispered, closing the door behind him as he walked out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Jiyong opened his eyes to the sharp sunlight falling right into them, and he squeezed them shut in annoyance instantly. He tried lying on his back but something soft was preventing him from doing that. Blindly, he grabbed the pillows and threw them away, lying flat on his back as soon as they hit the floor. He turned on his other side, his face now away from the sun’s rude awakening, and he opened his eyes again, just a little bit this time, to make sure that the harsh light was gone. Once he made sure that his surroundings were safe for his eyes, he fully opened them. The first thing he saw was a white wardrobe, and his eyes worked in a circular motion while he slowly pulled himself up in a sitting position; after the wardrobe was a door, then on the next wall was a bookcase and a television, and on the third wall was a big glass door leading to a balcony, curtains framing its sides. The room’s fourth wall was behind him and he could tell that all that was pushed against it were the bed he was sitting on and a small night table. It was a neat and organized room and… He was sitting in a bed?

Holy shit, he hadn’t been in a bed in at least two months. He looked down on the soft light-blue blanket that was covering the rest of his body and ran his hand over it. A slight but pleasant flowery scent emerged from it, hinting that it had been recently washed. The environment was comforting and bound to set anyone in a good mood, and as much as it was already influencing his own mood positively, the more weirded out he grew. The room was entirely unfamiliar to him and he couldn’t remember when or how he ended up in there. He tried recalling memories from the past night but that wasn’t helpful either. He decided to get up and look for some logical explanation to the situation he was in.

The headache hit him like a bullet the moment he stood up. It was so overwhelming that he had to stumble forward and reach for the wardrobe’s edge to grasp on and compose himself. That was his third and definitely strongest hangover that week. Once he came to terms with the pain, he turned the door’s handle and peaked outside. He could hear faint laughter and general chit chat, and he saw a few other closed doors and a set of descending stairs. Gaining confidence in his somewhat stable step, he walked past the doors, not bothering with them, and with a steady grip on the banister he made his way downstairs.

“Well, look who’s up early”, Jiyong heard in a familiar tone while he was only halfway through the stairs. Looking over the banister and down, he saw a big, spacious living room. Two sofas and a large comfy armchair were arranged in a half circle around a long coffee table. One sofa was unoccupied, the other had three guys he had never seen before sitting on it; a blond sitting on a brunette’s lap on one side of the sofa, and a guy with an undercut focused on his phone screen sitting on the other side. In the armchair was sitting the man that had spoken in the tone he could recognize. His face also looked familiar, but there was no name in his memory that he could match it with. By the time he was done with his observations he had reached the final step and he was now on the same floor with the rest of the men.

“Uh… Yeah I guess I’m up”, Jiyong murmured, his right hand awkwardly scratching his neck. “What time is it?”

“It’s eight in the morning. Really early for a hangover person, I’m surprised you’re up”, the man he was sure he knew said. 

“Yeah, about that hangover… Do you, uh, have a bathroom I can use?”, Jiyong asked. Every minute he spent standing was making the nausea in the depth of his stomach worse.

“Hallway, first door to your left”, the man answered, pointing at his general direction. 

“Thanks”, Jiyong said. “I, uh… I’ll be right back”. 

“Take your time”.

With fast steps he reached the bathroom door and in seconds he had locked it behind him and was leaning over the toilet, emptying out the remains of last night’s alcohol. He felt instant relief in his stomach, but his throat was burning sore from the gastric fluids he threw up along the way. He stayed in this position for a while, exhausted and breathing heavily. His head felt too heavy for him to pull it back up his shoulders, and his banging headache that had grew in intensity was only making things worse.

“Are you okay in there?”, he heard a deep voice, accompanied by a knock. He didn’t actually know for how long he was leaning over his own vomit, but he knew that if he was left unbothered he could actually sleep off that fucking headache in this position.

“I’m fine, thanks”, he tried to sound convincing. 

“Can I come in?”

These few words triggered a set of reactions for Jiyong. He went from almost falling asleep over the toilet, to reaching for the paper with his right hand and flushing the toilet at the same time, while sitting on the floor with his back against the sink, wiping his lips with and throwing the used paper in the bin.

“Uh… Sure?”

The door showed resistance to the man’s attempts to open it; it would budge a little but not move further than that.

“Shit”, Jiyong mumbled as he leaned forward, placing his left hand on the floor in front of him to support his weight while he threw his right hand on the key to unlock the door. He put too much force into this motion and almost fell face first on the floor, so as soon as he turned the key to unlock the door he placed his other hand on the floor too to maintain his balance. 

Before he had time to sit back against the sink again the door flew open, almost hitting him in the face. In front of him he saw a pair of expensive shiny shoes, and looking up the image continued with dark gray suit trousers, a white shirt with a perfectly tied tie, and finally the familiar face looking down on him. Jiyong felt really uncomfortable being looked down on while he was on all fours like that, and with a sudden move he sat back and started getting up on his feet, but a loud bang and an instant sharp pain from his collision with the sink had him back on the floor holding his head. Seunghyun rushed to lean over him.

“God, you’re a mess”, he said while helping Jiyong stand, the younger man’s hand still pressing the injured spot on his head. “Come, I’ll get you some ice”.

Back in the now empty living room, Jiyong was lying down on the sofa with the help of the man whose name he didn’t know. On top of his accident in the bathroom, the signs of the hangover were intensifying, and his whole body was stiff and hurting, making lying down both painful and relieving. He really hadn’t gotten enough sleep to get over that god forsaken hangover, if not in its entirety, at least some percentage of it. It really was getting worse and worse.

Seunghyun had left his side for a while to go get him some ice. He came back with the promised ice bag wrapped in a towel, a glass of water, and a small cardboard box. He placed the ice on Jiyong’s head and the glass in his hand. He opened the box and took a pill out.

“Drink that, it’ll ease the pain”, he said and handed it over to Jiyong. “I hope you like eggs”.

“Eggs are fine”, said Jiyong while placing the pill on his tongue. He chugged down the water realizing he was probably dehydrated, and the glass was empty before his thirst was gone. However he was too shy to ask for another glassful, especially after being offered so many comforts, so he didn’t say anything. Instead, he tried sitting up a bit, just enough so that he could lean over and leave the glass on the table. Seunghyun noticed his attempt and with one quick move he took it from Jiyong’s still weak hand.

“You should rest. I’ll get you some more water”, he said and urged to the kitchen. 

“Uh… Thanks?”, Jiyong barely managed to mumble before the other man was gone. 

Soon, Seunghyun was back with a small tray containing another glass of water and a cup of coffee. 

“Drink the coffee, it will help with the hangover”, he smiled at the younger man. 

“Yeah, I know”, Jiyong said as Seunghyun placed the tray on his lap. “Uh, again, thanks”.

Seunghyun nodded as if to welcome him. “I’ll be right back”, he said, and ran off to the kitchen once again.

Jiyong had a really hard time dealing with his headache and no matter in how much of a pleasant state waking up in a nice room left him earlier, it was affecting him badly really fast. What was also bothering him was the stranger’s kindness. Why the fuck was he helping him like that? They didn’t know each other. Hell, Jiyong didn’t even know the man’s name, and somehow he had been forgetting to ask him. Not like he had any chances anyway, the man kept running around bringing him everything he needed. They hadn’t managed to have a proper conversation ever since he had woken up in that comfortable bed that had been so kindly offered him. It seemed really weird to him that a random stranger in a bar would pay for his drinks and then carry him to his place and take care of his bad hangover the morning after. It made Jiyong uncomfortable, especially since he wasn’t sure how to thank the man, but also seeing a stranger caring for him to this extend for no apparent reason was really starting to get on his nerves.

Waiting for his host to come back in the living room and hoping that this time they’d have the chance to chat a bit, he brought the mug to his lips and sipped some of the contained dark liquid. The coffee was perfect; not too sweet, not too bitter, and hot enough to be soothing without burning his lips and tongue on it. The pain in his throat was fading out with each sip, and the caffeine left him feeling more energized than before. In just a few minutes he had finished up his coffee, and just as he was bringing the water filled glass to his lips he saw the stranger walk in the living room once again, his hands occupied with a new tray, balancing a plate on it. 

“Did you like the coffee?”, Seunghyun asked him as he switched the tray on Jiyong’s lap with the new one. He moved the water from the previous tray to the one he had just brought.

“Yeah, it was really good”, Jiyong spoke with easiness through his soothed throat. “Best one I had in a while”. 

“Good to know”, Seunghyun replied with a smirk as he sat comfortably on his armchair. 

Jiyong looked down on the tray that lied across his lap. On top of it were his glass from before and a plate filled with scrambled eggs and sausages, along with a fork and a knife. He held those in his hands and took a bite out of the food in front of him. He didn’t really feel like eating, his stomach was still pretty upset from having to throw up all its contents earlier, and he was scared that it would happen again, but he knew that he had to at least force himself to eat something if he wanted to feel better, and he also didn’t want to seem rude to the man whose name he still wasn’t aware of. 

A silence fell between them as Jiyong kept swallowing small bites slowly. He didn’t know about the man but for him the silence was awkward for sure, mainly because the other man had his stare fixed on him, watching him eat. Every attempt of eye contact just made the situation more uncomfortable for Jiyong, so he decided to break the silence.

“Wow, these are really good”, he said, faking some enthusiasm. “Did you make these?”

“Yes, I did. I’m glad you like them”, replied Seunghyun instantly, as if he was expecting Jiyong’s question. 

Awkward silence filled the room once again. God, this man was really hard to converse with. Jiyong put the last bite in his mouth and swallowed it after a bit. The nausea hadn’t returned so far and he judged that it probably wouldn’t return later either. His attention was suddenly switched to the question the answer to which he was dying to know. 

“So, uh… Who are you?”, his voice more hesitant that he would like it to be. 

Seunghyun laughed. “What exactly do you mean? Because I assure you, I’m many things”.

The man’s reaction was something Jiyong didn’t expect, yet for the sake of his curiosity and for his need to actually know who he was dealing with, he tried being more specific.

“Uh, I mean… What’s your name?”

“Seunghyun” came the reply, accompanied by a charming smirk. “I thought you’d never ask”.

Jiyong ignored the sarcastic comment and proceeded to the next question.

“Seunghyun it is then. Well, like, thanks for the help and all, and uh, I don’t want to sound ungrateful but, um, why am I here? I mean, why are you helping me? I mean, uh, you don’t even know me”, Jiyong struggled with constructing a proper sentence. 

“It’s true that I don’t know you”, Seunghyun said while resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward, “but maybe I’d like to get to know you”.

“Uh? Why?”

“Let’s just say you caught my interest”.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the really late update everyone! Unfortunately I slipped back into bad mental health out of nowhere, even though I was doing better lately. Exams came up to make things worse, but I promise this fanfic is not dead! Again, I'm sorry I'm late with updating. Please enjoy and feel free to leave comments down below!

Jiyong woke up hours later on the same sofa he was previously having the conversation in. He had drifted off to sleep soon after Seunghyun pretty much said that he was interested in him. He found the statement pretty weird and in the time it took his pained brain to process it, the other man was already standing and walking away dropping some probably cheap excuse. He didn’t remember what the excuse was, but he remembered his headache getting duller and feeling extremely sleepy all of a sudden. And then, well, it appears that he had dozen off to sleep once again.

He figured that it was pretty late in the afternoon. The room was mostly dark, but the sky wasn’t the darkest it could be, and the dim blue hues coming through the windows helped him clearly make out the shapes of the furniture that were spread around. He couldn’t hear any activity going on in the house, so he assumed he was left alone in a house owned by a man who didn’t even know well. The second one of the two possible scenarios was that Seunghyun was there, but sitting in another room not doing anything that required him to be loud.

“Seunghyun?” he called out through his damaged throat, but he got no response, confirming his suspicions that he was alone. 

He got up, careful not to bump on the coffee table standing in front of the sofa, and headed to the toilet. He thought that since no one was around it would be safe not to close the door behind him, and not close it he did. The remains of his most recent hangover and the deep sleep he had slipped in had left his head still heavy, but he was definitely feeling better than before.   
He was washing his hands when he heard the front door open, accompanied by Seunghyun’s voice arguing on the phone, and then the loud noise of the door closing with a bang. ‘He must be angry’, Jiyong thought, and with that concern in his head he hesitantly walked out of the bathroom to meet Seunghyun. 

“Listen, I have to go, I’ll call you later”, Seunghyun said quickly into the phone’s microphone with an exhale while looking at Jiyong, and hang up. 

“Uh… Is everything okay?”, asked Jiyong, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. 

“Yeah, don’t worry. Just customers who delay paying for my goods, but I have it under control”, Seunghyun replied, gracefully sitting on his armchair and pulling out a pack of cigarettes. 

“Want a smoke?”, he offered the pack to Jiyong. 

“Uh, I don’t really smoke often, and these look high quality and I’d hate to –”

“It’s okay, I can afford them. Take one”, Seunghyun cut him off with a reassuring smile. 

“Well, thanks”, Jiyong said while carefully taking a cigarette out of the pack and reaching for the lighter Seunghyun was offering him, after lighting his own.

Jiyong put the cigarette to his lips, lighting it while inhaling and watching Seunghyun exhale his gently. He then pushed his own smoke out of his lungs, trying to suppress the cough this action caused him. Seunghyun noticed and let out a small laugh. 

“You really aren’t used to smoking, huh?”, he asked Jiyong, amused by the younger’s man attempts to look like he could actually smoke. 

“Yeah, I mean I do smoke but I usually can’t afford it, so I grew out of it I guess. Plus, these are pretty heavy”, Jiyong answered between coughs and small laughs. He took in more smoke, this time choking less while exhaling. 

“So you don’t have a job?”, Seunghyun leaned back on the armchair, looking at the other man and putting his cigarette in his mouth. 

“Job? I don’t even have a home”, Jiyong replied lightly, but Seunghyun could see in his eyes that the subject their conversation was being built on was quite a sensitive subject for him.  
“How so?”, he continued the conversation nevertheless, taking advantage of the situation and trying to get the other man to open up and trust him.

“Well, I used to live with my girlfriend. We broke up, she kicked me out since we were living at her place, and that’s pretty much how the story goes”, Jiyong replied while looking down at his hands, then lifting his chin slightly along with his hand to take another bit of smoke in his lungs. He was getting back on track with his smoking skills fast. 

“I think it’s the right time to tell you that I didn’t randomly bring you here. I didn’t randomly talk to you out of kindness or pity for a homeless man drinking his liver rotten at some cheap shady bar. I brought you here in hopes to, let’s say, cast you”, Seunghyun said in a steady, professional voice, while leaning in and resting his elbows on his knees, maintaining eye contact with the other man. 

“Cast me?”

“Yes, cast you. I mean, you’re a pretty boy. You’re pretty much wasting yourself, being homeless and drinking your nights away. You caught my attention, so I’m offering you a job.”

“And, uh, what kind of job are we talking about here?”, Jiyong asked, resting his back on the sofa and smoking the last drags of what had remained of his cigarette, obviously interested in the offer. In fact, his current situation really didn’t allow him to turn down any possible job offer; he would do just about anything for even a small amount of money. 

“Let’s say it’s something like modeling. You got the body, and you got the face. I have three other men under my name, I believe you saw them earlier today. Basically I provide them a roof, and various luxurious comforts in exchange for their services. All their incomes go to me, but they also get a pretty big allowance, depending on how much they make per week, of course. The job doesn’t even require too much of their time, so it’s a big opportunity I’m offering you here. Interested?”, Seunghyun explained, smirking charmingly. 

“Well, of course I’m interested. But I haven’t had any sort of experience on a job like this, are you sure about it?”, the younger man replied hesitantly, scared that his inexperience would reason Seunghyun into taking his offer back. 

“Definitely sure. There’s a first time for everything, and I’m sure you’ll be really successful. You’ll learn in time”, Seunghyun reassured him with a smile.

“Count me in then”, Jiyong replied excitedly. 

“One more thing; you have to promise me you’ll do whatever I ask you to. Things might get pretty explicit; you know how these things go. Just remember that everything is really private, so don’t worry about friends or family finding out. And the pay is good, so keep that too in mind”. 

“I’ll do my best not to disappoint”, Jiyong said, smiling, the excitement of getting a job keeping him from having seconds thoughts and realizing what lengths Seunghyun could make him go the more his new career would expand. 

“Perfect, that’s the spirit”, Seunghyun mimicked the other man’s enthusiasm. “I’ll bring you some papers to sign”. He took one last drag before putting his cigarette off in the ashtray, and he stood up and walked away from the living room. 

Jiyong threw his cigarette butt in the ashtray a few seconds after Seunghyun did and waited for him to come back, his fingers nervously tapping his right knee. Soon enough, the older man was back with a contract and a pen. 

“Please sign here”, he placed the paper on the coffee table and offered Jiyong the pen. 

Jiyong quickly looked over the contract, not really reading anything, and he placed his signature on the appropriate space in the end of the paper. 

“Perfect”, Seunghyun smiled and picked up the paper and the pen. “Anytime you come up with any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me”, he said with his back turned at Jiyong as we walked off into his office.

In the few minutes it took Seunghyun to organize the contract in his office, Jiyong was left alone thinking. Was he too quick to take up a job offer by a man who didn’t even know at all, not even knowing the exact nature of the job? Hell, he hadn’t even read the contract properly. All in all, he had absolutely no idea what he had just signed up for. Sure, Seunghyun had explained to him – but now that he thought about it again, the explanation had sounded like it was dancing around the actual nature of the job, it had sounded sugarcoated. And there was also the whole staying in that house thing – what kind of boss had his employees casually living around his house? Seunghyun was quite the weirdo, Jiyong thought. But again, his position didn’t really allow him to turn down any possible job offers, whatever the job was. Staying there that night and for as long as he would be Seunghyun’s employee was better than spending his nights out in dangerous streets and alleys, sleeping anxiously with one eye open. In the end, no matter how weird this agreement he just made with Seunghyun was, he considered himself the luckiest person in the world for finding a job while homeless. Because let’s face it, practically no one hires homeless people. For once, his life seemed like it could finally take a good turn. 

When Seunghyun walked back into the living room, he was met with Jiyong’s smile. That’s a pretty smile, he thought, and quickly brushed it off his mind. He approached the liquor cabinet standing against the wall.

“I think we should drink to our future partnership”, he looked back and smiled at Jiyong, taking a bottle of wine out of the cabinet with one hand and reaching for two glasses of those who stood on top of it with the other.

“Yeah, let’s drink to that!”, Jiyong sat up in the sofa, ruffling his hair and smiling like a little kid. 

Seunghyun took a seat in the armchair – Jiyong figured that armchair was his very own spot in the living room – and gave one of the glasses to Jiyong, filling it up skillfully. The wine had a rich dark red colour and its strong fruity smell filled up the room as he finished pouring it in the second glass. 

“To our partnership”, Seunghyun announced with a smirk and the look of a winner in his eyes.

“To our partnership”, Jiyong replied quite shyly, and they clinked their glasses in celebration. 

Τhe hours ticked away on the clock, and Jiyong didn’t seem to realize how much time had passed. They filled up their glasses again and again, laughing and chatting about everything. The time passed pleasantly for both of them, but Seunghyun, who seemed like he was always aware of what was going on around him, noticed that late evening had turned into the early hours of the morning.   
“I think we should stop after this one”, he laughed as he emptied what was left in the bottle, measuring it by eye and perfectly splitting it in the two glasses. There wasn’t much wine left, it hardly went up to half of each glass, but it was enough for the state they both were in after pretty much chugging down a whole bottle of wine. 

“Oh my God, can you believe it? It’s amazing how we drank that whole bottle up and we’re still feeling fine”, Jiyong giggled as he threw his head over the back of the sofa. 

“You know your wine is high quality when it takes more than one bottle to get you drunk and when you wake up in the morning amazed at the absence of a hangover”, Seunghyun tried to sound serious in between his own bursts of giggles. “But you, my boy, are obviously affected by this wine. Sure you’re not drunk, but definitely tipsy. What a lightweight”, he calmed down his laugh and leaned on the back of his armchair, eyes fixed on the wine he was swirling in his glass. 

“Did you just call me ‘my boy’?”, Jiyong laughed out. 

“And a lightweight”, Seunghyun smirked.

Jiyong emptied his glass in one go with two big gulps, and looked up at the other man provocatively. “Still a lightweight?”. 

“Oh please, did you really think you could change my mind on that just by swallowing fast less than half of a glass of wine?”, he joked, and then leaned in closer to the younger man, locking eyes with him. “Still a lightweight”. 

Jiyong pulled back, weirded out by the sudden invasion of his personal space. Seunghyun noticed and smirked at him, before sitting back in his seat and finishing up his wine. 

“It’s almost 2am”, he announced, pulling up his shirt sleeve to reveal the expensive watch wrapped around his wrist. 

“Oh damn, time flies fast”, Jiyong replied, resting his head back and closing his eyes.

“You should go rest, we have things to do tomorrow”, Seunghyun said and stood up.

“Things?”, Jiyong opened his eyes lazily to meet his. 

“You’ll see tomorrow. I’ll wake you up early”.

Jiyong groaned at the sound of the word ‘early’, and slowly sat up, running his hand through his hair. Seunghyun stood there until he got off the sofa. 

“Do you need help to climb the stairs?” Seunghyun asked, half serious half joking. 

“Shut up, I’m not drunk”, Jiyong replied laughing softly and started walking up the stairs. 

“Okay then, big man”, Seunghyun said smiling, amused. “And please don’t stay up. Goodnight Jiyong”. 

“Yeah, goodnight”, Jiyong murmured and continued climbing the stairs.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys and thanks for all the support! Just a word of warning, the next chapter might take a bit too long to be up. I still have exams, and on top of that I'm moving to a new apartment, so I won't have much time to write until I'm all settled there. Again, thanks for your support and patience!

A gentle rocking and Seunghyun’s voice saying something Jiyong couldn’t really make out in his sleep awoke him in the early hours of the next morning.

“What time is it?”, he mumbled, his eyes still closed.

“Good morning. It’s around seven, and we have to leave by nine, so don’t fall asleep again”, Seunghyun warned softly. 

“Yeah yeah whatever. Good morning to you too”, Jiyong grumbled and with slow moves he placed his feet on the floor, now sitting on the edge of the bed. He sloppily tried to fix his bed hair, half embarrassed that Seunghyun – who was looking sharp as always even this early in the morning – saw him in this state. Jiyong was indeed a messy sleeper. 

Seunghyun was sitting next to him on the bed and patted him on the back. “You should start getting ready, if you don’t want us to be in a hurry later. Go take a shower, I have laid out a towel and some clothes for you in the bathroom. I’d suggest you throw out those old clothes; We’re buying new ones today”, he said with a smirk and fire in his eyes. 

“Wait what – seriously?”, Jiyong blinked in surprise at Seunghyun’s words. 

“Well of course, and everything is on me since I’m kind like that”, came the reply. “This is your big day; I’m planning to give you a big head start into your new life”. 

“Uh I’m not sure… I’d never be able to thank you enough for that”, Jiyong said shyly, fixing his eyes on the carpet laid across the floor next to the bed. 

“Oh you will, through your work. Trust me, I’ve done this before, and in the end both sides win; It’s worth it”, Seunghyun said confidently. “I’m going to head downstairs now to prepare some breakfast. Go take that shower and please stop worrying over such silly things”, he gave Jiyong another reassuring pat on the back and got up to walk out of the bedroom. 

Jiyong stood up shortly after and shuffled his way to the first floor bathroom. The bathroom looked luxurious enough to match the rest of the house – shiny white tiles on the wall, a porcelain bathtub with those little gold lion paw shaped legs, a shower with a glass door featuring a beautiful image of a sakura tree, a sink accompanied by a golden tap which looked like it could be real gold for sure. The towels were carefully picked to match the bathrooms colours, and hell, even the toilet itself was quite a sight; everything in that bathroom was satisfyingly neat and classy. 

He had only taken his hoodie off when he noticed a plastic bag neatly placed next to the toilet. In seconds, he thought back on how Seunghyun had advised him to throw his old clothes away, and he figured that was the purpose of the bag. God, that man was always so organized about everything, it seemed. On the closed toilet seat laid a baby blue shirt and a pair of dark blue coloured trousers. Quite a beautiful combination, he thought, and he hadn’t worn anything that fancy in ages. He snapped out of his thoughts and in a few minutes he had stepped out of the rest of his old clothes, them now lying on the floor, as he opened the glass door carefully to step in the shower.

Downstairs, Seunghyun was standing in the kitchen preparing a quick breakfast. Nothing too fancy – just rice and a soup, light and nutritious, a perfect way to start one’s morning. He was wondering whether Jiyong had actually gotten up or had slacked off and gone back to sleep. A few seconds of careful hearing led him to catch the faint sound of water running on the bathroom upstairs, which assured him that the younger man would probably be on time to catch breakfast and them to comfortably start their day on time, which would surely lead them to take their time between the things they had to do without rushing. He took Jiyong’s behavior as a sign of him being responsible, and he smiled at himself while this thought crossed his mind, soon to go back to focusing on his cooking. It wouldn’t take long for breakfast to be ready, and he wondered whether Jiyong would manage to finish his shower and go downstairs to catch it before it turned cold. 

Back upstairs, Jiyong had finished taking his morning shower and he was now stepping out of the glass door and on the carpet, careful not to create water puddles on the bathroom floor. He reached for the towel rack, pulling one of the towels towards him and taking a moment to feel its soft, rich texture. He closed his eyes and pressed the towel against his face gently, patting his skin dry with careful movements, enjoying the towel’s fuzziness. He then proceeded to wiping the water away his chest and lower body, small drops of water falling from his tangled wet hair to his shoulders. He threw the towel over his head and ruffled it until it absorbed the excessive water from his hair. He looked in the mirror, shocked at his image; he couldn’t remember the last time he looked so refreshed and well-rested. Smiling at himself, he sloppily combed his hair with his fingers, giving it one final quick ruffle to give it the chance to air-dry in a carefree look, just how he’s always liked it. Lifting the clothes laid on the closed toilet seat, he found a pair of underwear and socks neatly placed under them. He quickly got dressed, surprised that the clothes were exactly his size. After taking one last look in the mirror, he dashed down the stairs, tucking his shirt in his trousers on his way to the kitchen. 

“My, now that’s a change”, Seunghyun didn’t hold back in expressing his surprise, looking at Jiyong from head to toes. “And it’s about to get better”.

“Well, thanks”, Jiyong laughed awkwardly as he took a seat in front of the kitchen table, taking a look at the breakfast laid in front of his eyes.

“You’re looking good”, he commented again with a smirk, making Jiyong heat up with embarrassment. “Your hair needs touching up though – the colour has faded quite a lot and the roots, well, the roots are about take over soon”, he laughed. “But don’t worry, we’ll fix that today”. 

Jiyong smiled awkwardly at his comments and tried to stay away from eye contact. He couldn’t really understand whether Seunghyun had the ‘gift’ to make people uncomfortable, or if the problem was his own self.

“So, what are the plans for today?”, Jiyong tried to change the conversation subject to something more comfortable for him, while taking small bites of his breakfast.

“A lot of shopping, a visit to the hairdresser, and anything that comes up along the way”, Seunghyun said casually, standing against the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in hand.

“Sounds like quite a day”, Jiyong continued the small talk. “Are you sure you want to spend all that money on me though? I still feel pretty uncomfortable with that to be honest…”, he voiced his concerns.

“Definitely. Like I said, my investments always pay back in time. Don’t worry about it”, came the reply, accompanied with a smile. 

Seunghyun placed his coffee down on the kitchen counter and walked behind Jiyong’s chair. He softly ran his fingers across his shoulders, before reaching to the front of his chest to unbutton the first two buttons of his shirt. “Don’t button it all the way up if you want to look casual”, he said, leaning in the other man’s ear, causing Jiyong to get goosebumps. He then dragged his fingers back and over his shoulders again, and walked to the other side of the kitchen, sipping at his coffee like what he had just done was nothing. He shot a playful look at Jiyong, who was frozen in his seat.

“Uh… Dress etiquette isn’t my strong point I guess”, Jiyong replied hesitantly, breaking the eye contact with a blink and fixing his eyes on the bowl of rice in front of him, taking quick bites.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make you an expert in no time”, Seunghyun said, staring at the coffee that was now pretty much cold in its mug. “We have a lot to work on”, he sighed. 

“Sorry”, Jiyong mumbled, digging through the rice with his chopsticks, having lost most of his appetite. 

“Like I said earlier; it’s okay. I won’t really give the same speech twice”, Seunghyun replied, finishing up his coffee and placing the mug in the sink. 

“Okay. So, uh, I’m quite full, to be honest”, Jiyong changed the subject once again.

“Good, did you like the food?”, Seunghyun followed along, taking away the empty dishes. 

“Yeah I did”, Jiyong cleared his throat. “I mean, you’re good at cooking”.

“Why, thank you”, Seunghyun smiled at him. “So, if you’re ready, should we get going?” 

“Yeah, sure”, Jiyong stood up and adjusted his shirt in his trousers. 

“Great”, Seunghyun put the last dish in the sink and reached for the car keys in his front pocket. 

Jiyong followed Seunghyun through a door in the kitchen that led downstairs and into the garage. Seunghyun opened the front door to the passenger seat for Jiyong, and then walked over to the other side of the car. They both got in and fastened their seatbelts, and soon they were on their way. 

Silence fell in the car as Seunghyun drove on the open road, with Jiyong skipping through his thoughts while looking absentmindedly out of the window, his eyes fixed on the blur the speeding car made the asphalt they were leaving behind look.

“So, what would you like to do with your hair?”, Seunghyun broke the silence, not taking his eyes from the road in front of him.

“Huh?”, Jiyong snapped back into reality at the sound of Seunghyun’s voice, but not quite catching what the man had asked him.

“I said, what would you like to do with your hair? I’m asking cause we’re going to the hairdresser first”, Seunghyun explained looking at Jiyong, then quickly turning his gaze back to the road. 

“Oh. Well, I’d like to keep my current style and colour, I’d just want to touch it up a bit cause it’s gotten too long and the colour has faded”, Jiyong explained. “I mean, if that’s okay?”, he quickly added, worrying that his choices for his hair wouldn’t suit whatever job he had signed up for. 

“Of course it’s okay, I want you to look however you want yourself to look like, I’m only here to suggest things”, Seunghyun reassured him. “And I feel like orange is actually your colour”, he said, visualizing what Jiyong would look like with a touched up version of his current hairstyle. 

“You think?”, Jiyong blushed and sank in his seat, looking down at his hands, his fingers nervously fiddling with each other. 

“I do”, Seunghyun smirked at Jiyong’s adorable physical response. “I think it brings out your best features, it lights up your whole face”, he added. 

“Uh, thanks”, Jiyong murmured awkwardly, feeling like Seunghyun had hinted that his whole face was visually pleasing.

“Can’t wait to see you after we’re done with the hairdresser”, Seunghyun continued with the compliments, his tone light and soft. 

“Yeah, I’m excited too! It’s been quite a long time since I last saw my hair in a good shape”, he admitted with a small uncomfortable laugh, immediately regretting making that statement. It always made him uncomfortable admitting his bad financial state, because it hadn’t always been like that. It was just that, sadly, the good days where he was financially and emotionally stable were long over. Though, hopefully, it seemed to him that those days were about to return, one way or the other. 

“Then it’s safe to say that from now on it’s going to be quite a long time until you see your hair in a bad shape”, Seunghyun said playfully with a wink. 

Jiyong didn’t know how to reply to that, so he responded with a soft laugh and a wide smile, and since it didn’t seem like Seunghyun was going to continue the conversation he went back to staring out of the window. He noticed that there were more houses and even a couple of shops around, and he figured that it wouldn’t be long until they reached their destination. 

Indeed, after a few minutes the shops on the streets started outnumbering the houses, and Seunghyun pulled over next to a pavement, parking it with skillful turns of the car wheel and turning the engine off. Jiyong was zoned out, staring at Seunghyun’s movements. He was seriously having problems comprehending how graceful everything this man did was. He suddenly snapped out of his trance when he heard the driver’s door closing with a bang, and he rushed to unbuckle his safety belt and get out of the car when he noticed Seunghyun was already standing outside. 

“Would you like some coffee and something small to eat? We have a lot of walking to do today”, Seunghyun asked Jiyong, putting on a pair of sunglasses.

“I won’t say no to that, even though I’m quite full”, Jiyong replied lightly, willing to stock up on energy for the hours that were to follow. 

“There’s a good coffee shop just around the corner”, Seunghyun said, locking the car and making sure it was actually locked by gently pulling at the driver’s door handle. 

“Sounds good”, Jiyong replied, remembering to adjust his shirt inside his trousers. 

“Let’s get going then”, Seunghyun smiled and led the way, with Jiyong following close behind.


End file.
